Factors for Failing Health

While discussing physical, mental, and emotional health, I did not discuss the causes for the
derangement of health. I left that part because there is hardly any cause which affects one plane
without affecting the others. Our mind and body are so closely integrated that when one is
affected there are bound to be repercussions on the other. Let me give some examples to
elaborate this. Even a small cut in your hand (physical plane) can make you worry (mental
plane) about the bleeding or injury in general and can make you angry (emotional plane) with
yourself that you were not careful enough. Again, mental anxiety (which often results from
emotional problems) is a well known cause for peptic ulcers and hypertension. These are not
isolated examples. Nearly every known disease, be it physical or psychological, can be
associated with signs and symptoms on the other planes.

Now let me elaborate some of the most common factors affecting our health.

1. Genes - Yes! our genes are one of the biggest factors in deciding the way in which our
health gets deranged. They also decide which plane is affected the most in a particular person.
Through ages, it is known to humanity that children tend to inherit their 'mother's nose' or their
'father's eyes'. But what most of us do not realize is that children can also inherit the 'father's
temperament' or 'mother's thought process'. And as children inherit the physical and mental
makeup from their parents, they also inherit the tendencies and susceptibilities to acquire
diseases. For example - it is a well known fact that conditions like obesity, hypertension, peptic
ulcers, crohn's disease, diabetes, depression etc. often run in families.

Defective genes sometimes directly result in diseases. What we commonly call as genetic
disorders. But even the 'emotional instability', 'tendency to worry a lot', or the 'tendency to
catch a cold frequently' can be attributed to our genetic inheritance.

2. Lifestyle and Social factors - Our contemporary life style is the second biggest factor for
failing health of people. Increasing sedentary habits, long working hours, reduced rest hours;
diet containing highly processed food, poor in fiber content and with loads of artificial colors
and flavors; increased anxiety and tensions related to education, career, job, performance, etc.
are some of the factors that are responsible for decreasing the health status of our society at
large. Coupled with environmental factors and allopathic drugs, these factors are playing havoc
with our health.

3. Allopathic Drugs - Even allopaths say that allopathic drugs are one of the biggest cause of
health problems today. Allopathic drugs not only have their side-effects, but their excessive
use is decreasing the immunity level of our society at large. The pill-popping culture is an open
invitation to chronic ailments. People keep suppressing their ailments and keep working until
their body finally gives up.

4. Environmental factors - Increasing pollution of our air, water, and earth is a well known
factor in the increasing level of many diseases. There is a high level of asthma and other
allergic complaints in urban areas. Depleting ozone layer is a known factor in increasing rate of
skin cancers. Noise pollution is a recognized factor in increasing anxiety and stress levels in
our society.

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These are some of the major factors. One factor that I have left and which is commonly
considered a cause for illness is - bacteria, viruses, and parasites. What about these? Are they
not a major cause of disease? Yes, they are a cause of disease - but not a major one. The ability
of these microorganisms to make a person sick relies on two factors:

2c virulence (quality and quantity)

2c immunity

Plus there is a third factor that made me say that bacteria, viruses etc. are not a major cause of
human sickness:

2c Social health

If a person gets infected by a potent microbe and has a low immunity against it, then he may
fall ill. But bacteria and viruses are not a cause for decreasing health status of our society. Man
himself is the cause for it.

People through their lifestyle and drug-abuse, decrease their immunity and create fertile
grounds for these microorganisms. And people themselves act as the carriers and create
conditions for their spread. Think of it this way - if there is no drug abuse, no sexual
perversions, no promiscuity - what will be the rate of infection of HIV or Hepatitis-B?
Extremely low. And that applies to most of the modern diseases in some way or the other.
Bacteria and viruses cannot rage a war against us - it is us who help them kill us!

Ôhat about Spiritual Health?

I could not have left this one! Homeopathy does consider that we all have a 'spirit like' vital
force, which animates us. And it is this spirit like vital force which gets deranged before we
fall sick. Also most of the humanity believes in God. And if you believe in God, you cannot
logically disbelieve the spirit within us. And since homeopaths themselves are human beings
and deal with other human beings, we cannot just shun the beliefs of a large proportion of
humanity. We need to work with them and on them.

The first question that comes up in context of spiritual health is whether you believe in spirits?
And then there are related questions like - do you believe in God? good spirits and evil spirits?
afterlife? hell and heaven? etc. etc. All are very philosophical questions and the only answer
scientific reasoning can give to them is - 'NO'. But I believe there is more to life than just
science and so I will give my views regarding these questions in relation to the question of
spiritual health.

To begin with, yes! I do believe in human spirit and God too. Wait! Don't jump to any
conclusions. Not yet. There is a big question that follows this one. What do you understand by
 God and human spirit? Well! I don't know if there is something ethereal like God and spirits.
For me God means 'Good Deeds'. I don't believe there is any God in idols and churches or
heaven. I believe if there is any God, he is within us. The 'Goodness' in you is the God you
think about. I do not know and can not know if there is a dynamic human spirit that animates
us. What I know is that life itself is dynamic. And the spirit I believe in is the summary of our
physical, mental, and emotional health. For me 'human spirit' is what a person really is, apart
from what he appears to be. I believe what goes around, comes around. What you sow, is what
you reap. So if there is a hell, it's right here and if there is a heaven, it's right here. I am not
aware of my past-life or afterlives, if I had any. But I have this life to live - the life that I am
aware of - and I want to live it healthily. That's my spirit!

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